It’s funny that much of the media ponders the question of whether the Cubs will fire Dusty Baker, and basically comes to the decision that it wouldn’t matter, so what’s the use?
You know that the Chicago beat writers (well, maybe not Mike Kiley) know that Dusty should go, and Bruce Miles comes right and says it, while Seabiscuit’s Jockey tries to be less overt about it (and gets yelled at anyway).
Buster Olney writes an excellent blog on ESPN.com (which yes, I inexplicably allow my credit card to be charged for every month–but hey, I get the world’s most useless sports magazine sent to my house every other week as a “bonus”), and Buster’s been saying all year that Dusty should be launched.
if Baker is fired shortly — the Cubs’ front office deserves much criticism for not simply firing him back in May, when the team was lifeless and performing so poorly, and trying to do something to salvage 2006. There was some school of thought that Baker wasn’t being fired because the Cubs didn’t want to make him look like the scapegoat for the injuries sustained. Well, it’s going to look that way anyway, if Baker is fired in a season in which Derrek Lee misses almost half the schedule and Mark Prior and Kerry Wood have been out for significant periods. The standard for keeping or firing Baker should have been this all along: Is he the best manager available for the Cubs? And the answer back in May was no.
I like Ken Rosenthal of The Sporting News and Fox’s MLB coverage, but I nearly threw my remote through the TV when he joined the chorus of “Why bother” when he talked about whether or not Dusty was on the hot seat on Fox’s pregame Saturday.
There’s a reason you bother. Because every year that the Cubs don’t contend (which is pretty much every year) they waste the second half of the season.
Last year they didn’t bother to see if Nomar could play the outfield or if Matt Murton could hit righties. Nomar’s leading the National League in batting and Murton is not hitting righties. They waited until the end of the year to play Ronny Cedeno, he broke his hand and we got more Neifi. They watched Neifi play and somehow deduced that he had value and gave him a two year contract.
It’s time, right now to get ready for 2007. That means not putting Phil Nevin in left field under any circumstances unless you really think you want to bring him back next year (which, if you are sane, you do not–in fact, a good organization would trade him immediately, while he’s hitting, which given his recent track record is not likely to continue). It means not starting Neifi…ever. I know he had a good track record against Brad Radke, and I’m sure Ronny Cedeno probably needed a day off, but Neifi’s been getting lots of starts, and inexplicably hitting second a lot of the time.
The use is that it’s not like the Cubs played well during Dusty’s entire tenure and that injuries have cost them this season. They played well in 2003 and for long stretches (not long enough though) of 2004. They were bad last year and have been awful this year.
Dusty unwittingly copped to his own shortcomings when he said this yesterday:
Give me horses, and if my horses stay healthy, I’ll win.
In other words, if you give a team good enough to win on its own, I’ll win. If I have to actually manage, we’re all fucked.
It’s exactly what we’ve seen during his years in Chicago. It’s also exactly what frustrated Giants’ fans said we’d see when he left there. Get an MVP caliber season out of a juiced out of his mind slugger, get good solid starting pitching and stock the field with players who already know what to do in certain situations and Dusty’s golden.
Force him to “teach” his players something and he’s screwed.
Over at Ivy Chat, Chuck has been insisting for some time that not only should Dusty get fired but that Jim Hendry should have to come down out of the ivory tower and manage the team through the end of the season.
The mere thought of Jim in doubleknits forces me to shudder, but the idea is on the right track. Dusty’s not part of the long term solution, and certainly his cadre of incompetent coaches aren’t either. Launch them all, bring in a staff for the rest of the season with player evaluation and development at the top of their task lists.
But the Cubs are not a forward thinking organization, which is amazing considering the kind of emotional scarring you subject yourself to when you look back at whatever it is that they’re looking back at.
Why was Derrek Lee in Iowa on Saturday? Honestly, what the hell is a fifth place team doing sending their best player to AAA for a two-game rehab assignment? Especially when the big league club was playing in an American League ballpark and using the DH? Can somebody explain to me what the advantage of sending Derrek to Iowa for two games was supposed to be? Were they hoping that Freddie Bynum would smack the turf on Saturday and bang cloose a blood clot so there’d be a roster spot? As it was, Derrek’s two-game Iowa stint was so crucial to his rehabilitition that they cut it short by a day and made him drive from Des Moines to Minneapolis overnight to start on Sunday.
It’s one thing if he’s on the Roger Clemens-Mark Prior rehab tour where a guy plays then you spend four days pondering if he’s ready to move to the next level. The Cubs were looking to get him eight at bats? Why not just have him join in on Kerry Wood’s simulated game fun. It’s not like Kerry throws hard enough to accidentally hurt Lee if he hits him.
WGN showed Andy MacPhail in a skybox with his former Twins’ manager Tom Kelly (who Andy hired) and his old assistant Terry Ryan, now the Twins’ general manager. Andy looked like his testes were hooked up to a car battery with jumper cables. We know, of course, that Andy lacks two of the necessities that would cause any pain in that instance.
How can he spend a day talking to those guys then look at moron #1 and moron #2 and not want to fire both Hendry and Baker?
I guess that supposes that Andy cares more about winning than about risking his own hide if he advised a struggling parent company to eat the contracts of his two most prominent employees.
The real reason that Dusty isn’t gone is that the Cubs do not want to pay him to not manage the team. Even though it would be money much better spent to have him not in the dugout screwing things up. Teams (especially the Cubs) make this mistake with players all the time. “Hey, we’re paying him too much to let him go.” Even though the reality is that his actual peformance, regardless of pay rate is sinking you.
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Hank White’s recent hit barrage motivated us to put up a countdown on every page here at Desipio to track his attack on Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. Alas, Hank went hitless after nine games. However, the countdown lives on. I got to wondering, is there any chance Hank could even get a hit in 56 games, regardless of whether they are in a row or not? Let’s find out. Every day that Hank gets at least one hit, we’ll take a number off the countdown. Better look out, Mr. Coffee.
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Honestly, when Ozzie Guillen is hilariously attacking Jay Mariotti, how can you pick a side? Ozzie’s an annoying gasbag, but so is Jay. There are no winners here. Though the national media’s reaction to the attack is telling. Tony Kornheiser so loathes Jay that he won’t say his name on PTI, other writers are referring to Jay simply as “the columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times.” Sportswriters can be a prickly lot, but most of them seem agreed on one point. Jay Mariotti is an asshole.
In fact, had Ozzie called him an asshole instead of a fag, Ozzie wouldn’t be in any trouble. Though granted, I think Ozzie has already called him an asshole, and probably will again…today, tomorrow at the latest.
But what about Ozzie? Nobody really buys his assertion that he doesn’t understand English well enough to know how offensive that word might have been, right? He speaks English fine, he just talks so fast that he runs most of his words together and is hard to understand. If I had paid attention better during my four semesters of college Spanish, I’d probably know if Ozzie runs his Spanish together that way, too.
What we do know though, actually we’ve known all along, is that Ozzie’s tenure in Chicago will end badly. Something ugly will happen that will force Kenny Williams to do what he claims he warned Ozzie is coming unless Ozzie pipes down. Kenny will have to fire him. The only difference is that now when Ozzie leaves he’ll do it as the first manager since Kid Gleason to actually coach a Chicago baseball team to a World Series. That’s the only difference between now and the day Ozzie was hired. Winning might have made the rope longer, but Ozzie still seems hell bent to eventually hang himself with it.
Let’s just fire the Cubs as a fanbase…Don Trump style.
“Chicago Cubs, you’re fired. Now, get the hell out of my face, you nutless sacks of monkey poo.”
That would be great. We could call the new team the Chicago Not-Cubs. They could play in Not-Wrigley Field and be managed by Not-Dusty Baker, Not-Andy McFAIL and Not-Dounut Boy Hendry.
So, if not Hendry, then who should be the manager for the rest of the year?
Or, are you agreeing that Hendry should coach, so long as he only wears the blue top during day games to avoid blinding the fans with reflected sun when he walks to the mound to take Wood (or Prior, or Guzman, or Marmol, or Marhsall) out in the middle of the 4th inning?
1) Maybe Hendry declaring that he’s taking over the club will end in the same way that it did when Dallas Green tried to pull the same stunt in ’87–his immedaite removal.
2) You gotta believe MacFail’s on thin ice. He really boxed himself into a corner by giving Donuts an extension fresh off a 3-game sweep of the Cardinals in April. He’s got to realzie that getting rid of Hendry now will probably put him in the crosshairs. He’s screwed the pooch big time this time, and I couldn’t be happier. All the John McDonough-inspired promotional bullshit in the world may not be enough to save him.
Good dose. I’m thinking of wearing a bag over my head for Saturday’s game.
I’m in the Bleacher Suite tonight. Price was right and the food is included. Plus, I don’t need a bag over my head because the darkened windows prevent anyone from seeing me there.
It’s all absolutely painfully true.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5713564
Dayn Perry is a simp, and when it becomes obvious to the mono-digit IQ crowd that he’s in, then it’s really obvious.
I hope the Tribune sells the Cubs, but forgive me if I subscribe to the belief that whoever buys them is just as likely to be inept and cheap and out to squeeze every last penny out of the fans regardless of on-field results as the Wrigleys were and the Tribune is.
The idea that some genius billionaire will come in and do things the right way is the same kind of unlikely outcome as rooting for the Cubs to win something is. I guess that’s why we’re holding out for it.
I would like to see Steve Stone take McPhail or Donuts or Dusty’s job.
Well put Andy, but then again, it usually is when you lay it down. Fucking Cubs.
Wasn’t it Steve Nostradomus-Stone who predicted that Kerry Soft-Wood and Mark Prior would have all these shoulder problems? Wasn’t there some kind of falling out between him and Dusty about this kind of crap?
The only problem with that, Andy, is the tide is already turning thanks to our friends on the South Side.
Oh, you won’t see the results right away. But the ripple effect of all this will be felt in 10 years. Whoever replaces John McDonough after he retires is going to feel that Tim Floyd had a better chance at succeeding with the Bulls.
Don’t forget that what originally turned things around for the Cubs wasn’t the ballpark, but the ’84 division champs–the first playff team in Chicago in a quarter century. Sure, they’ve been able to milk the park for all it’s worth, but without the success in ’84, they may not have had the opportunity to market the hell out of the park. Winning came first.
Yes a new owner may be just as bad, but they may also provide a spark in the beginning. Remember that Tribune made a nice effort right out of the gate, hiring Green, putting the “Building a New Tradition” on there (upsetting a handful of pollyellons of their day) and winning the division in their third full season of ownership.
They have since placed less of a priority on winning, of course. But these things go in cycles. Sure, the neighborhood’s gentrified, the place has value as a tourist attraction, but ten years from now you’ll be more likely to see the Cell littered with Trixies and frat boys coming out to see the fireworks. You’ll have also have a generation of “real” fans who began rooting for the Sox as 8-year olds in 2005. For proof, check out the House that Michael Built on West Madison.
The marketing of Wrigley Field will peter out as soon as the cost for keeping it up surpasses the revenue. Anyone who’s going to put their groups’ billions of dollars toward buying this team will understand this. They’re making out like bandits now, but this is the peak. In 10 years, all they’ll have left (unless there is a change in ownership) will be a bronze statue of John McDonough at Clark and Addison.
Dayn Perry’s a good man. And he used to send me checks for 5-dollars fifty, which was about all I deserved.
Er, wait. It was the other guy that sent me checks. Either way, Dayn’s a good read.
(the) 84 division champs–the first playff team in Chicago in a quarter century.
‘Cept for us current World Champs on the South Side who had playoff baseball a year earlier, dumbass.
D’OH!.
I deserved that.
I like Dayn’s baseball draft previews, which are basically just him making up stuff about people he’s never seen play before.
Hey, about that. Who’s up for an NBA Draft GameCast Wednesday night?
I am, Andy!
P.S. I jump real high.
P.P.S. Not sure about anything else though.
Even if the Cubs play .600 baseball the rest of the way (which they won’t) they will finish 81-81. Not good enough, but good enough for Dustiny to keep striding.
’84 plus the gentrification of lakeview plus Harry= Cubs dominance in Chicago. The truth is that as long as Lakeview remains a destination for first apartments out of college, the Cubs will draw 2.5 million each year. It’s a good time and ain’t nothin’ wrong with a good time.
There will be a dip in attendance from what it has been over the last 3 seasons. The Cubs are living off the residuals of 2003. But everyone’s crankier than hell about this team and the feeling that they blew the one window for sustained success in my lifetime.
You can’t fire me-Freddie & Tony are hurt-we’re not at full strength!
If you’re wondering what’s happened to me read this:
Murton is still adjusting to life in the big leagues.
“He’s still trying to learn and implement some of the things he’s being taught,” Baker said. “The other day, I said, ‘What were you thinking in that situation?’ He said, ‘I was trying to remember what you told me two or three days ago.’ That’s good that he’s paying attention and that’s good that he’s trying to learn.”
I’m just trying to follow Dr Dusty’s orders to become a better hitter like Neifi.
What Murton actually said was, “I was trying to figure out some of that jibberish you spewed at me two or three days ago.”
If you try to think and nothing happens, just swing from your ass.
Who let the dude in with the Fire Dusty sign? And who let him sit behind home plate? Dude, that’s just bad karma.
Dude, have you guys seen my new NBA Live commercial?
Yes, it’d be rubbing it in for us to say “I told you so.”
Hey, about that. Who’s up for an NBA Draft GameCast Wednesday night?
http://www.on-hoops.com
They couldn’t come up with something better than that?!?!? They must think Cubs fans are as stupid as Dusty.
I’m in for the draft cast… One collar is already popped.
Hi guys.
So depressed I can barely keep my face off the keyboard long enuf to type.
Jeezus christ, somebody associated with the club needed to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING from the beginning of May forward. I know that, you know that, and the few players we have left know that. That’s why they’ve quit.
And don’t gimme that “They’re paid handsomely to play. They should suck it up”. Yeah, you and I who have 5 figure salaries can say that. You have to remember that these assclowns live in a different world than you and I, and the 5 million dollars doesn’t mean a thing when a 35-hopper is bounding between 2nd and 1st and you hafta bend yer ass to pick it up, but you say “Why Bother”….
Congratulations Andy, you’re right about something.
Dayn is an idiot. If you ever meet him, see if you can get him to explain how his #1 team in his power rankings doesn’t make the playoffs.
To set the record straight, BA has Samardzija as it’s 20th best prospect and Colvin somewhere between 31 and 44. I particularly like how Dayn says the Cubs don’t spend money on player development and then says they spent too much on a signing bonus – he’s a smart guy.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/features/261330.html